Montessori toys and materials
When “Montessori” becomes everything from plastic rattles at supermarket checkouts, laminated task sets on Vinted, to Chinese activity suitcases and even furniture – how can you make sense of it all?!
OSimply put – NONE of the previously listed are truly “Montessori.” Official M. Montessori materials, made according to Maria’s own designs and currently certified by the Montessori association, are produced by only four manufacturers worldwide.
The production of these materials is constantly coordinated and supervised by the international association founded by M. Montessori to maintain maximum quality and educational benefits for children. These materials are expensive and definitely not easily found in just any toy store.
They are most often used in methodical teaching classrooms, much less often at home:
And we are happy to announce that we are now representatives of Nienhuis, one of those four official manufacturers.
seku-vaiku
And we can offer you the genuine M. Montessori materials, just as Maria used them, with benefits proven by 100 years of practice. You can find the materials catalog and order conditions in the sekuvaiku.lt section “For Educational Institutions”.
W hat to use at home? Only four manufacturers and the limited availability and high cost of official Montessori materials have encouraged toy and educational material makers who support the method to improvise.
Thus, method value-inspired tools have appeared on the market, often very similar to official ones or, most importantly, performing the same functions and responding to children's development. We ourselves create tools on this principle and select the assortment of other manufacturers for the... sekuvaiku.lt
These are now the most commonly encountered tools around us, thanks to which the method has become much more accessible to families.
Interestingly, even manufacturers like Nienhuis, who produce official tools for educational institutions, create method-inspired tools for families! We are glad that from now on you will find their branded tools Nienhuis and Educo in our assortment and a growing selection.
How to avoid pseudo "Montessori" tools? It is unfortunate that due to very careless sellers' attitudes and loose use of the term, parents are often misled and low educational value and poor quality toys are pushed on families just for quick profit.
However, it is also important not to forget that the Lithuanian market currently offers a truly wide selection of quality toys and tools that are not and should not be Montessori!
For example, our daughters' favorite open-type toys, wooden toys, silk scarves, dolls, magnetic constructors, players – not Montessori, but excellent toys that develop various skills and enrich development.
Then we invite you to carefully choose and critically evaluate sellers' promises, and read here what is important to pay attention to:
